The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond is a new drama based on a recently rediscovered original screenpla
By by legendary writer Tennessee Williams. Widely considered the most important American playwright of the post-World War II era, Williams wrote the screenplay at the height of his late-1950's heyday, amid such classic plays-turns-films, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth and Orpheus Descending.
Set in the Roaring Twenties, in the town of Memphis, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond tells the story of Fisher Willow (Bryce Dallas Howard), a headstrong young heiress who is bothered by the constraints of proper Southern society and who rebels by asking the impoverished but handsome son of her father's caretaker, Jimmy Dobyne (Chris Evans), to escort her to the major social events of the season. Although their relationship starts off as purely a business arrangement, Fisher discovers that she really loves Jimmy, but she finds it impossible to earn the affection she tried to buy.
At the film's press day, Bryce Dallas Howard talked about playing the dueling strength and fragility of the quintessential Williams heroine, as well as what it's been like to be a part of the big film franchises, Spider-Man, Terminator and now the Twilight Saga, in which she is taking over the role of vampire villain Victoria in Eclipse, due out in June 2010.
Q: This is a great time in your career, being in such big franchises as Spider-Man, Terminator and the Twilight Saga, and you got to do this recently re-discovered, long-lost Tennessee Williams film. What is this period in your life like right now?
Bryce: I just feel really lucky. To get to originate a Tennessee Williams heroine is not anything that I ever thought to even go for. You don't think that those kinds of roles would ever be available. It was extraordinary. For me, whether or not a film has some kind of massive budget or is an independent film, or however it's getting made, it's always about the filmmaker and, hopefully, being a vessel for the filmmaker's vision. That's what really attracts me to projects.
With this, it was really Tennessee Williams and Jodie, and just her deeply profound understanding of what Williams intended for this piece, and then her own perspective and interpretation of that. It was so exciting to me. I just feel really lucky to have gotten to do this.
Q: Is being a Tennessee Williams heroine a genre unto itself? Did you try to put all of those other characterizations out of your mind while doing this?
Bryce: No. I really valued going through his canon of work and studying the great performances that had already been captured on celluloid and reading about the great theatrical performances because, in my opinion, he was a very singular writer and he had particular themes that it seems he was consistently fascinated by. There's an iconic Williams female character that you see elements of, over and over and over again, which is a woman ahead of her time, who's being suffocated by the world and who's too bright, too clever and too sensitive to really survive and feel grounded. So, to go through and watch Blanche DuBois and Maggie the Cat, who are these really iconic characters that he had created, and steal, to be honest, was something that was helpful to me.
Q: When you were watching those various performances, did you try to mimic the way they spoke at all?
Bryce: No, not that so much. We had this wonderful gentleman, Tim Monich, who was really helpful.
Q: There are a lot of words in this film. What was that like to adapt your acting to that approach?
Bryce: I come from a little bit of a theatrical background. I started that way. I don't have a tremendous body of work or anything, but I went to drama school. And so, to get to do a piece where the characters get to talk a lot, and that isn't just about the spectacle or the set piece, or is simply visual or movement based. It was really wonderful for me, and juicy and exciting. So, I didn't feel like there needed to be an adaptation to a different kind of style. It's just that the characters are speaking their mind. As opposed to it just being an expression, they're actually saying what's on their mind, and that's something that Tennessee Williams is really famous for. Shakespeare does that and Tennessee Williams does that. You crave that, when you're an actor, for sure.
Q: How did you go about approaching this in such a grounded way?
Bryce: I didn't consciously do that. I was always on set asking for line readings.
Q: What was it like to work with Chris Evans?
Bryce: Chris comes from a theater background as well and he really values rehearsal. It was such a relief to work with him because usually I feel like I'm the one harassing people to do it again, and he was right there. We'd rehearse pretty consistently until four in the morning. It's a very nuanced relationship. There's this shift in dominant-submissive that keeps happening throughout the film. This is Tennessee Williams. We wanted to do our best and give it our best go.
I just felt really lucky to work with him, for that reason. I remember looking on the monitor one day, and I was like, "Oh, my God, he looks like Paul Newman." There's something classic about him. He has this classic, strong, leading man presence, and is just such a wonderful person as well.
Q: What did they doing to your look for Eclipse, since you are stepping in to play an already established character?
Bryce: I'm wearing a wig for that film, so that there's a very grounded visual continuity for the character, which is critical.
Q: Isn't it a bigger role in the third film?
Bryce: Well, as written in the book, Victoria becomes the primary predator of Bella in Eclipse.
Q: You're going to be doing the Clint Eastwood film Hereafter next. What can you say about that?
Bryce: Oh, goodness, that's actually the first question I've had about that. I want to be careful because I haven't spoken to anyone on the film, as far as what I can share. But, it's a Clint Eastwood film, written by Peter Morgan and starring Matt Damon. I play opposite him. It's an incredible story. I'm really going to be totally vague because I don't want to speak out of turn. I just got hired.
Q: With it being a supernatural thriller, isn't that new territory for Clint?
Bryce: Oh, possibly.
Q: Clint Eastwood is an actor who became a director, Jodie Markell is an actor who became a director and you grew up with a father (Ron Howard) who was an actor that became a director. Is there a certain comfort zone, or a certain sense that you can communicate in a different way with a director who has been on your side of the camera?
Bryce: I couldn't answer that, just because I'm not a director. But, working with directors whose history is in performance, I feel like there's a different kind of focus, as opposed to directors who are more prone to being really technically proficient or visual. I feel like there are two schools of both, and a director needs to have both.
Jodie has both, for sure. I felt really, really supported, in terms of my performance. When I had questions or when she was directing me, there was an approach that was coming from a psychological place because she's an actor, and so she knows how to speak that language. Kenneth Branagh was the same way. M. Night Shyamalan is the same way. And, that's highly effective, for a number of reasons.
Q: What is the best advice that your father ever gave you, as an actor, and the best advice he ever gave you, from a directorial standpoint?
Bryce: The best advice he gave me was that, if there was anything else I could do, to do that. You need to not be able to do anything else, to be in this business. If you have other options, in those unemployed moments, those other options will take precedent. From a directorial standpoint, I think it's really Freudian, the amount of trust I have in filmmakers because I have such a trusting relationship with my dad. He's such a mentor to me. He has never let me down, as a person. He just hasn't. And, that's translated for me with filmmakers.
I have an association that director means total authority. Director means they will never let you down. Director means just trust them and fulfill their vision, and know that the story will be told in its best incarnation. I've always felt really lucky to get to work with really great filmmakers. For me, the whole objective is just to hopefully be of service to what they want. In his persona, that's been the advice that he hasn't directly said, but I've understood.
Q: Are you going to come back for Spider-Man 4?
Bryce: I don't know. But, that was always how it was. I'm just really glad that it's going to be Sam [Raimi] and Tobey [Maguire] and Kirsten [Dunst] because they're the epicenter of that franchise. Other than the fact that it's Spider-Man, they're responsible for that. They're incredible and totally dedicated.
THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND opens on December 30th
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